Spending on claims by the NHS' dispute-handling body rose to £2.5bn last year, a climb from £2.3bn in 2020/21, despite initiatives to slash the number of cases going to court. On the positive side, though, in its annual report published this week, NHS Resolution states that a record 77% of claims were resolved in 2021/22 without court proceedings.
The report said this was achieved through various dispute resolution approaches and continued co-operation across the legal market, which gained momentum during the pandemic. The Law Society Gazette reports that in the year, 16,484 clinical and non-clinical claims were resolved, up from 15,712 in 2020/21.
Claimant legal costs paid out during the year rose to £470.9m, up from £448.1m the previous year while NHS legal costs rose from £151.4m to £156.6m. The increase in NHS legal costs was attributed to increased spending on general practice indemnity schemes.
Helen Vernon, chief executive, expressed concern about the “continued rise in the costs of compensation claims for clinical negligence”.
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